Below you can find out more about how we work, the ChangeStar team and our clients.

Contact us now to find out more, discuss what you need and see how we can help – call 01273 964018 or email rdocwra@hotmail.com

5 things you should know about us

1. We support both the human and the professional – organisations and individuals in the social change sector need support to achieve greater impact – not just strategic and creative support, but personal support in developing skills, dealing with their lives and thriving in their jobs. Our aim at ChangeStar is to see the sector as a network of human beings, not just professionals – and to provide support to both these human and professional sides. This is partly because our people need support, and also because we believe it will make them more effective in seeking social change.
2. We bring the human back – the world and the workplace are drifting away from the human. AI and data are important and have great potential for good, but human skills and creativity are critical too. Workplaces are becoming dehumanised. As a sector, we’re failing to understand the people we’re trying to communicate with and the societies we’re trying to change. At ChangeStar, we want to make the world and the social change sector fit for the creatures we really are (which is different from what most of us think we are – see next point). And we want to bring the ‘human arts’ back in our work – by applying human insights, using human skills (like creativity and empathy) and building human connections.
3. We apply human insight – human problems – from climate change to inequality – can’t be solved effectively without first understanding human beings and the societies they build. Yet, most people (including those in the social change sector) have an out-of-date view of how human beings think and behave. We are not the rational, self-determined individuals most of us think we are. This lack of understanding causes massive damage to our ability as a sector to seek change as effectively as we could – from broad factors such as building the right policies to details such as how to communicate with potential supporters – click here for more details. ChangeStar therefore aims to help the sector apply human insight (in the form of evidence from psychology, philosophy and other disciplines) to its search for change, at all levels – from policy making to fundraising and behaviour change communications. To do this, we aim to build a bridge between academia and civil society to make complex ideas accessible and apply them for social good.
4. We help people get perspective – at ChangeStar, we believe that challenges of all kinds – whether in work or in life – can be tackled more effectively if people can stand back from them and see the bigger picture, and approach them in a better informed way. We therefore aim to help people become better informed and develop perspective in all areas of our work – particularly our coaching, training and resources.
5. We help you achieve greater impact. Our clients tell us that our strategies have transformed their causes, our coaching has helped their teams to thrive and our creative gets some of the best results in the sector – for example, we’re helping one client to recruit new supporters consistently at 1:1 ROI or better.

Our team

Richard Docwra – Director, consultant, coach, trainer
Richard is a consultant, coach and writer helping people, organisations and society to flourish. He has over 25 years’ experience of successfully building and leading organisations and social innovations, including the fundraising agency TW CAT (now On Agency) and the not-for-profit Life Squared. He is also an experienced consultant, strategist, creative director, trainer and coach, who has helped a wide range of progressive causes (from Oxfam to the Green Party) gain social change and raise many millions of pounds.

He is also an experienced author, broadcaster and communicator, with postgraduate academic background in both psychology and philosophy, and has produced books, guides, podcasts and other materials on a wide range of topics including psychology, philosophy, politics and the art of living. He is committed to helping human beings understand themselves and the societies they create, so that we can improve individual lives and create a better society. His books include ‘Humanise: how knowing ourselves could change the world’, ‘Life – and how to think about it‘, and ‘Modern life – as good as it gets?’, and his articles have appeared in a range of magazines and websites – from The Ecologist to Renewal. He is also the host of the podcasts ‘Humans & Hope‘, ‘Making the world better’ and ‘The Big Questions with Copson and Docwra’.

Email richard@changestar.co.uk | Website www.richarddocwra.com | Twitter @RichardDocwra | LinkedIn

David Hudson – Head of Copy
David is an award-winning copywriter with 30 years’ experience in direct marketing and advertising, specialising in the fundraising sector. He has written websites, TV ads, social campaigns, DM packs and more for a wide range of clients such as BHF, Royal British Legion, Sightsavers, Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust, Flora and Fauna International and many others, as well as for commercial clients. David enjoys using his background in linguistics to add fresh insight and create compelling copy that gets results.

Tina Hall – Head of Design
Tina is a senior designer with over 20 years of experience in the charity and arts sectors, including heading up design teams in creative agencies. She has a deep understanding of how design can increase the responsiveness of communications, and how it can be used to retain and build relationships with supporters. She has a record of success across a wide range of media and has worked with a variety of clients, including the British Museum, Dogs Trust , Amnesty International, Centrepoint and Ethiopiaid.

Clients

Below are some examples of the great voluntary sector organisations that ChangeStar work with on fundraising and social change. If you’d like to see some more, just get in touch.